legislation

Calls it a "fact."

The White House has argued that President Obama's executive amnesty order last week was made well within the existing law. But in remarks in Chicago tonight, President Obama went off script and admitted that in fact he unilaterally made changes to the law.

President Obama made the admission after getting heckled for several minutes by immigration protesters.

"Listen, you know -- here. Can I just say this, all right? I've listened to you. I heard you. I heard you. I heard you. All right? Now I have been respectful, I let you holler. All right? So let me just -- nobody is removing you. I have heard you, but you have got to listen to me, too. All right? And I understand you may disagree, I understand you may disagree. But we have got to be able to talk honestly about these issues, all right?

"Now, you're absolutely right that there have been significant numbers of deportations. That's true. But what you are not paying attention to is the fact that I just took an action to change the law."

The United States Constitution says the legislative power is held by Congress, not by the president.

We are conservatives who have differed in the past on immigration reform, with Kristol favorably disposed toward it and Lowry skeptical. But the Gang of Eight has brought us into full agreement: Their bill, passed out of the Senate, is a comprehensive mistake. House Republicans should kill it without reservation.

At a pre-Independence Day naturalization ceremony at the Treasury Department Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew used about one-third of his address to a roomful of newly sworn-in citizens to criticize the America’s immigration system and plug the current immigration legislation. According to prepared remarks, he told these newest Americans that "too many immigrants do not get a fair shot at the American dream.

Speaking about Hong Kong's decision to let NSA leaker Edward Snowden leave, without handing him over to American authorities, White House spokesman Jay Carney said that "we find their decision particularly troubling." Carney added that their decision "unquestionably has a negative impact" on U.S.-Hong Kong relations, and called it a "setback."

No signing ceremony.

President Barack Obama's staff used an autopen (a machine that mimics one's signature) to sign the "fiscal cliff" legislation that Congress passed on New Year's Day. There was no ceremony or photo-op for the autopen bill signing.

The latest Rasmussen poll of likely voters shows that independents overwhelmingly support the repeal of Obamacare — by 18 percentage points (55 to 37 percent) — which once again raises this question: How can an incumbent president hope to win reelection when his centerpiece legislation is this unpopular with swing voters?

It looked so easy when the bipartisan JOBS Act cleared the Senate (73-26) and the House (380-41) and was signed into law by President Obama last week. But passage of a strong bill wasn’t a snap. Only the maneuvering of Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell kept the measure from being delayed, angrily debated, and then watered down.

A contest.

Democrats were in such a hurry to pass their latest giveaway to the public employees unions—$26 billion in “emergency aid” to the states—that they forgot to name the bill allocating the new stimulus funds. For a while, it seemed the legislation, passed by 247-161 in the House and 61-39 in the Senate, would be known as the “_____ Act of _____” (H.R. 1586).

Holy Grail.

President Obama confirmed the worst kept secret in Washington this week: Democrats will move health legislation forward in Congress without any Republican support, despite a bevy of polls saying slow down or start over.

Now the newest parlor games in Washington are the black art of vote counting and brushing up on arcane Senate procedures like “reconciliation” and the “Byrd Rule.”